VMC’s wild goose chase comes to a halt

Vijayawada: The wild goose chase by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation for ideal locations for garbage dumping seemingly comes to a halt for the time-being at least as the quarrying sites with deep trenches at Pathapadu in Vijayawada rural mandal provides the civic body the much-needed respite.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation found a two-and-a-half acre site with trenches at Pathapadu for using as dumping yard.

“The site can accommodate the whole volume of 550-600 tonnes of garbage generated in the city daily, “Hopefully, there will not be any objections from the residents of Pathapadu”, asserts Vijayawada Municipal Chief Medical Health Officer Gopinath.

The site is at a safe distance from the village and an approach road connecting the dump yard has been laid bypassing the village. So that the vehicles carrying garbage could reach the site directly without touching the village, he added.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has become the butt of anger of locals when it started dumping the city’s garbage at locations close to Kolanukonda village and Ajithsingh Nagar on the city outskirts in the past.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation was forced to give up garbage dumping at Ajithsingh Nagar following a strong resistance from the local residents with the backing from all parties.

The plant set up at the site by a private agency for management of solid waste was also closed as a sequel to the massive protests. A similar hostile situation greeted the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation from people at Kolanukonda too.

Complaints galore that it was quite unfair to dump waste of city people in villages leaving the folks in the vicinity to the risk of stink and squalor. Besides, the garbage breeds mosquitoes with an adverse impact on public health and hygiene in the areas around the dump yards.

The civic body is unable to establish a waste treatment plant for want of dumping locations for a long time in spite of having funds.

Dr Gopinadh said the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation could manage with the dumping yard at Pathapadu for a period of at least two-and-a-half years.

It may be noted that the state government had signed an MoU with Jindal Company to establish an energy plant for generation of power out of pallets at Naidupet in Guntur district.

The MoU is meant to facilitate dumping of garbage from Vijayawada, Guntur and the other surrounding civic bodies in a scientific manner.

It is proposed to ensure that measures will be in place for dumping of garbage to ensure against contamination of ground water in the vicinity.

As a result of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation’s reported failure to ensure safe disposal of garbage and thereby upkeep sanitation, among others, the city failed to add the feather of `smart’ tag to its cap in 2016.

It may be recalled that the city failed to find a place in the list of smart cities announced by the Centre in 2016.